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Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and
Scottish literature Scottish literature is literature written in Scotland or by Scottish writers. It includes works in English, Scottish Gaelic, Scots, Brythonic, French, Latin, Norn or other languages written within the modern boundaries of Scotland. The earli ...
, notably the novels '' Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy'', ''
Waverley Waverley may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Waverley'' (novel), by Sir Walter Scott ** ''Waverley'' Overture, a work by Hector Berlioz inspired by Scott's novel * Waverley Harrison, a character in the New Zealand soap opera ''Shortland Stree ...
'', ''
Old Mortality ''Old Mortality'' is one of the Waverley novels by Walter Scott. Set in south west Scotland, it forms, along with ''The Black Dwarf'', the 1st series of his '' Tales of My Landlord'' (1816). The novel deals with the period of the Covenanters, ...
'', '' The Heart of Mid-Lothian'' and ''
The Bride of Lammermoor ''The Bride of Lammermoor'' is a historical novel by Sir Walter Scott, published in 1819, one of the Waverley novels. The novel is set in the Lammermuir Hills of south-east Scotland, shortly before the Act of Union of 1707 (in the first editio ...
'', and the narrative poems '' The Lady of the Lake'' and '' Marmion''. He had a major impact on European and American literature. As an advocate, judge and legal administrator by profession, he combined writing and editing with daily work as Clerk of Session and Sheriff-Depute of
Selkirkshire Selkirkshire or the County of Selkirk ( gd, Siorrachd Shalcraig) is a historic county and registration county of Scotland. It borders Peeblesshire to the west, Midlothian to the north, Roxburghshire to the east, and Dumfriesshire to the south. ...
. He was prominent in Edinburgh's
Tory A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. The ...
establishment, active in the Highland Society, long a president of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1820–1832), and a vice president of the
Society of Antiquaries of Scotland The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland is the senior antiquarian body of Scotland, with its headquarters in the National Museum of Scotland, Chambers Street, Edinburgh. The Society's aim is to promote the cultural heritage of Scotland. The usua ...
(1827–1829). His knowledge of history and literary facility equipped him to establish the historical novel
genre Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...
as an exemplar of European
Romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...
. He became a
baronet A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14t ...
"of Abbotsford in the
County of Roxburgh Roxburghshire or the County of Roxburgh ( gd, Siorrachd Rosbroig) is a historic county and registration county in the Southern Uplands of Scotland. It borders Dumfriesshire to the west, Selkirkshire and Midlothian to the north-west, and Berw ...
", Scotland, on 22 April 1820; the title became extinct on his son's death in 1847.


Early life

Walter Scott was born on 15 August 1771, in a third-floor apartment on College Wynd in the Old Town, Edinburgh, a narrow alleyway leading from the Cowgate to the gates of the
University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...
(Old College). He was the ninth child (six having died in infancy) of Walter Scott (1729–1799), a member of a cadet branch of the Clan Scott and a Writer to the Signet, by his wife Anne Rutherford, a sister of
Daniel Rutherford Daniel Rutherford (3 November 1749 – 15 December 1819) was a Scottish physician, chemist and botanist who is known for the isolation of nitrogen in 1772. Life Rutherford was born on 3 November 1749, the son of Anne Mackay and Professor John ...
and a descendant both of the Clan Swinton and of the Haliburton family (descent from which granted Walter's family the hereditary right of burial in
Dryburgh Abbey Dryburgh Abbey, near Dryburgh on the banks of the River Tweed in the Scottish Borders, was nominally founded on 10 November (Martinmas) 1150 in an agreement between Hugh de Morville, Constable of Scotland, and the Premonstratensian canons regu ...
). Walter was, through the Haliburtons, a cousin of the London property developer James Burton (d. 1837), who was born with the surname 'Haliburton', and of the same's son the architect Decimus Burton. Walter became a member of the Clarence Club, of which the Burtons were members. A childhood bout of
polio Poliomyelitis, commonly shortened to polio, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. Approximately 70% of cases are asymptomatic; mild symptoms which can occur include sore throat and fever; in a proportion of cases more severe s ...
in 1773 left Scott lame, a condition that would much affect his life and writing. To improve his lameness he was sent in 1773 to live in the rural Scottish Borders, at his paternal grandparents' farm at Sandyknowe, by the ruin of Smailholm Tower, the earlier family home. Here, he was taught to read by his aunt Jenny Scott and learned from her the speech patterns and many of the tales and legends that later marked much of his work. In January 1775, he returned to Edinburgh, and that summer with his aunt Jenny took spa treatment at Bath in Somerset, Southern England, where they lived at 6 South Parade. In the winter of 1776, he went back to Sandyknowe, with another attempt at a water cure at
Prestonpans Prestonpans ( gd, Baile an t-Sagairt, Scots language, Scots: ''The Pans'') is a small mining town, situated approximately eight miles east of Edinburgh, Scotland, in the Council area of East Lothian. The population as of is. It is near the si ...
the following summer. In 1778, Scott returned to Edinburgh for private education to prepare him for school and joined his family in their new house, one of the first to be built in George Square. In October 1779, he began at the Royal High School in Edinburgh (in High School Yards). He was by then well able to walk and explore the city and the surrounding countryside. His reading included chivalric romances, poems, history and travel books. He was given private tuition by James Mitchell in arithmetic and writing, and learned from him the history of the
Church of Scotland The Church of Scotland ( sco, The Kirk o Scotland; gd, Eaglais na h-Alba) is the national church in Scotland. The Church of Scotland was principally shaped by John Knox, in the Reformation of 1560, when it split from the Catholic Church ...
with emphasis on the Covenanters. In 1783, his parents, believing he had outgrown his strength, sent him to stay for six months with his aunt Jenny at Kelso in the Scottish Borders: there he attended Kelso Grammar School, where he met James Ballantyne and his brother
John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Secon ...
, who later became his business partners and printers.


Appearance

As a result of his early polio infection, Scott had a pronounced limp. He was described in 1820 as "tall, well formed (except for one ankle and foot which made him walk lamely), neither fat nor thin, with forehead very high, nose short, upper lip long and face rather fleshy, complexion fresh and clear, eyes very blue, shrewd and penetrating, with hair now silvery white". Although a determined walker, he experienced greater freedom of movement on horseback.


Student

Scott began studying classics at the
University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...
in November 1783, at the age of 12, a year or so younger than most fellow students. In March 1786, aged 14, he began an apprenticeship in his father's office to become a Writer to the Signet. At school and university Scott had become a friend of Adam Ferguson, whose father Professor Adam Ferguson hosted literary salons. Scott met the blind poet Thomas Blacklock, who lent him books and introduced him to the Ossian cycle of poems by
James Macpherson James Macpherson (Gaelic: ''Seumas MacMhuirich'' or ''Seumas Mac a' Phearsain''; 27 October 1736 – 17 February 1796) was a Scottish writer, poet, literary collector and politician, known as the "translator" of the Ossian cycle of epic poem ...
. During the winter of 1786–1787, a 15-year-old Scott met the Scots poet
Robert Burns Robert Burns (25 January 175921 July 1796), also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who hav ...
at one of these salons, their only meeting. When Burns noticed a print illustrating the poem "The Justice of the Peace" and asked who had written it, Scott alone named the author as John Langhorne and was thanked by Burns. Scott describes the event in his memoirs, where he whispers the answer to his friend Adam, who tells Burns; another version of the event appears in ''Literary Beginnings''. When it was decided that he would become a lawyer, he returned to the university to study law, first taking classes in moral philosophy (under
Dugald Stewart Dugald Stewart (; 22 November 175311 June 1828) was a Scottish philosopher and mathematician. Today regarded as one of the most important figures of the later Scottish Enlightenment, he was renowned as a populariser of the work of Francis Hut ...
) and universal history (under Alexander Fraser Tytler) in 1789–1790. During this second university spell Scott became prominent in student intellectual activities: he co-founded the Literary Society in 1789 and was elected to the Speculative Society the following year, becoming librarian and secretary-treasurer a year after.Hewitt, David (2004) "Scott, Sir Walter (1771–1832)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. After completing his law studies, Scott took up law in Edinburgh. He made his first visit as a lawyer's clerk to the Scottish Highlands, directing an eviction. He was admitted to the
Faculty of Advocates The Faculty of Advocates is an independent body of lawyers who have been admitted to practise as advocates before the courts of Scotland, especially the Court of Session and the High Court of Justiciary. The Faculty of Advocates is a constit ...
in 1792. He had an unsuccessful love suit with Williamina Belsches of Fettercairn, who married Scott's friend Sir William Forbes, 7th Baronet. In February 1797, the threat of a French invasion persuaded Scott and many of his friends to join the Royal Edinburgh Volunteer Light Dragoons, where he served into the early 1800s, and was appointed
quartermaster Quartermaster is a military term, the meaning of which depends on the country and service. In land armies, a quartermaster is generally a relatively senior soldier who supervises stores or barracks and distributes supplies and provisions. In ...
and secretary. The daily drill practices that year, starting at 5 a.m., indicate the determination with which the role was undertaken.


Literary career, marriage and family

Scott was prompted to take up a literary career by enthusiasm in Edinburgh in the 1790s for modern German literature. Recalling the period in 1827, Scott said that he "was German-mad." In 1796, he produced English versions of two poems by Gottfried August Bürger, ''Der wilde Jäger'' and ''Lenore'', published as ''The Chase, and William and Helen''. Scott responded to the German interest at the time in national identity, folk culture and medieval literature, which linked with his own developing passion for traditional balladry. A favourite book since childhood had been Thomas Percy's '' Reliques of Ancient English Poetry''. During the 1790s he would search in manuscript collections and on Border "raids" for ballads from oral performance. With help from John Leyden, he produced a two-volume ''Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border'' in 1802, containing 48 traditional ballads and two imitations apiece by Leyden and himself. Of the 48 traditionals, 26 were published for the first time. An enlarged edition appeared in three volumes the following year. With many of the ballads, Scott fused different versions into more coherent texts, a practice he later repudiated. The ''Minstrelsy'' was the first and most important of a series of editorial projects over the next two decades, including the medieval romance '' Sir Tristrem'' (which Scott attributed to Thomas the Rhymer) in 1804, the works of
John Dryden '' John Dryden (; – ) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate. He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the per ...
(18 vols, 1808), and the works of
Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whigs, then for the Tories), poet, and Anglican cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dubl ...
(19 vols, 1814). On a trip to the English Lake District with old college friends, he met Charlotte Charpentier (Anglicised to "Carpenter"), a daughter of Jean Charpentier of
Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, third-largest city and Urban area (France), second-largest metropolitan area of F ...
in France and a
ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...
of Lord Downshire in Cumberland, an Anglican. After three weeks' courtship, Scott proposed and they were married on Christmas Eve 1797 in St Mary's Church, Carlisle (now the nave of
Carlisle Cathedral Carlisle Cathedral is a grade-I listed Anglican cathedral in the city of Carlisle, Cumbria, England. It was founded as an Augustinian priory and became a cathedral in 1133. It is also the seat of the Bishop of Carlisle.Tim Tatton-Brown and John ...
). After renting a house in Edinburgh's George Street, they moved to nearby South Castle Street. Their eldest child, Sophia, was born in 1799, and later married John Gibson Lockhart. Four of their five children survived Scott himself. His eldest son Sir Walter Scott, 2nd Baronet (1801–1847), inherited his father's estates and possessions: on 3 February 1825 he married Jane Jobson, only daughter of William Jobson of Lochore (died 1822) by his wife Rachel Stuart (died 1863), heiress of Lochore and a niece of Lady Margaret Ferguson. In 1799 Scott was appointed Sheriff-Depute of the County of Selkirk, based at the courthouse in the Royal Burgh of Selkirk. In his early married days Scott earned a decent living from his work as a lawyer, his salary as Sheriff-Depute, his wife's income, some revenue from his writing, and his share of his father's modest estate. After the younger Walter was born in 1801, the Scotts moved to a spacious three-storey house at 39 North Castle Street, which remained his Edinburgh base until 1826, when it was sold by the trustees appointed after his financial ruin. From 1798, Scott had spent summers in a cottage at Lasswade, where he entertained guests, including literary figures. It was there his career as an author began. There were nominal residency requirements for his position of Sheriff-Depute, and at first he stayed at a local inn during the circuit. In 1804, he ended his use of the Lasswade cottage and leased the substantial house of Ashestiel, from Selkirk, sited on the south bank of the River Tweed and incorporating an ancient tower house. At Scott's insistence the first edition of ''Minstrelsy'' was printed by his friend James Ballantyne at Kelso. In 1798 James had published Scott's version of Goethe's '' Erlkönig'' in his newspaper ''The Kelso Mail'', and in 1799 included it and the two Bürger translations in a privately printed anthology, ''Apology for Tales of Terror''. In 1800 Scott suggested that Ballantyne set up business in Edinburgh and provided a loan for him to make the transition in 1802. In 1805, they became partners in the printing business, and from then until the financial crash of 1826 Scott's works were routinely printed by the firm. Scott was known for his fondness of dogs, and owned several throughout his life. Upon his death, one newspaper noted "of all the great men who have loved dogs no one ever loved them better or understood them more thoroughly". The best known of Scott's dogs were Maida, a large stag hound, and Spice, a Dandle Dinmont terrier described as having
asthma Asthma is a long-term inflammatory disease of the airways of the lungs. It is characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and easily triggered bronchospasms. Symptoms include episodes of wheezing, co ...
, to which Scott gave particular care. In a diary entry written at the height of his financial woes, Scott described dismay at the prospect of having to sell them: "The thoughts of parting from these dumb creatures have moved me more than any of the reflections I have put down".


The poet

Between 1805 and 1817 Scott produced five long, six-canto narrative poems, four shorter independently published poems, and many small metrical pieces. Scott was by far the most popular poet of the time until Lord Byron published the first two cantos of '' Childe Harold's Pilgrimage'' in 1812 and followed them up with his exotic oriental verse narratives. '' The Lay of the Last Minstrel'' (1805), in medieval romance form, grew out of Scott's plan to include a long original poem of his own in the second edition of the ''Minstrelsy'': it was to be "a sort of Romance of Border Chivalry & inchantment". He owed the distinctive irregular accent in four-beat metre to Coleridge's '' Christabel'', which he had heard recited by
John Stoddart Sir John Stoddart (6 February 1773 – 16 February 1856) was an English journalist and lawyer, who served as editor of '' The Times''. Biography Stoddart, who was born at Salisbury, was the eldest son of John Stoddart, who was a lieutenan ...
. (It was not to be published until 1816.) Scott was able to draw on his unrivalled familiarity with Border history and legend acquired from oral and written sources beginning in his childhood to present an energetic and highly coloured picture of 16th-century Scotland, which both captivated the general public and with its voluminous notes also addressed itself to the antiquarian student. The poem has a strong moral theme, as human pride is placed in the context of the last judgment with the introduction of a version of the " Dies irae" at the end. The work was an immediate success with almost all the reviewers and with readers in general, going through five editions in one year. The most celebrated lines are the ones that open the final stanza: Three years after ''The Lay'' Scott published '' Marmion'' (1808) telling a story of corrupt passions leading up as a disastrous climax to the
Battle of Flodden The Battle of Flodden, Flodden Field, or occasionally Branxton, (Brainston Moor) was a battle fought on 9 September 1513 during the War of the League of Cambrai between the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland, resulting in an English ...
in 1513. The main innovation involves prefacing each of the six cantos with an epistle from the author to a friend:
William Stewart Rose William Stewart Rose (1775–1843) was a British poet, translator and Member of Parliament, who held Government offices. From a Tory background, he was well-connected in the political and literary world, and made a mark by his championing of Itali ...
, The Rev. John Marriot, William Erskine, James Skene, George Ellis, and
Richard Heber Richard Heber (5 January 1773 – 4 October 1833) was an English book-collector. Biography He was born in Westminster, as the eldest son of Reginald Heber, who succeeded his eldest brother as lord of the manors of Marton in Yorkshire and Hodne ...
: the epistles develop themes of moral positives and special delights imparted by art. In an unprecedented move, the publisher Archibald Constable purchased the copyright of the poem for a thousand guineas at the beginning of 1807, when only the first had been completed. Constable's faith was justified by the sales: the three editions published in 1808 sold 8,000 copies. The verse of ''Marmion'' is less striking than that of ''The Lay'', with the epistles in iambic tetrameters and the narrative in tetrameters with frequent trimeters. The reception by the reviewers was less favourable than that accorded ''The Lay'': style and plot were both found faulty, the epistles did not link up with the narrative, there was too much antiquarian pedantry, and Marmion's character was immoral. The most familiar lines in the poem sum up one of its main themes: "O what a tangled web we weave,/ When first we practice to deceive" Scott's meteoric poetic career peaked with his third long narrative, ''The Lady of the Lake'' (1810), which sold 20,000 copies in the first year. The reviewers were fairly favourable, finding the defects noted in ''Marmion'' largely absent. In some ways it is more conventional than its predecessors: the narrative is entirely in iambic tetrameters and the story of the transparently disguised James V (King of Scots 1513‒42) predictable: Coleridge wrote to Wordsworth: 'The movement of the Poem... is between a sleeping Canter and a Marketwoman's trot – but it is endless – I seem never to have made any way – I never remember a narrative poem in which I felt the sense of Progress so languid." But the metrical uniformity is relieved by frequent songs and the Perthshire Highland setting is presented as an enchanted landscape, which caused a phenomenal increase in the local tourist trade. Moreover, the poem touches on a theme that was to be central to the Waverley Novels: the clash between neighbouring societies in different stages of development. The remaining two long narrative poems, '' Rokeby'' (1813), set in the
Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...
estate of that name belonging to Scott's friend J. B. S. Morritt during the Civil War period, and ''
The Lord of the Isles ''The Lord of the Isles'' is a narrative poem by Walter Scott in six cantos with substantial notes. Set in 1307 and 1314 Scotland it covers the story of Robert the Bruce from his return from exile in Ireland to the successful culmination of his ...
'' (1815), set in early 14th-century Scotland and culminating in the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. Both works had generally favourable receptions and sold well, but without rivalling the huge success of ''The Lady of the Lake''. Scott also produced four minor narrative or semi-narrative poems between 1811 and 1817: ''
The Vision of Don Roderick ''The Vision of Don Roderick'' is a poem in Spenserian stanzas by Sir Walter Scott, published in 1811. It celebrated the recent victories of the Duke of Wellington during the Peninsular War, and proceeds of its sale were to raise funds for Port ...
'' (1811, celebrating Wellington's successes in the Peninsular Campaign, with profits donated to Portuguese war sufferers); '' The Bridal of Triermain'' (published anonymously in 1813); '' The Field of Waterloo'' (1815); and '' Harold the Dauntless'' (published anonymously in 1817). Throughout his creative life Scott was an active reviewer. Although himself a Tory he reviewed for '' The Edinburgh Review'' between 1803 and 1806, but that journal's advocacy of peace with Napoleon led him to cancel his subscription in 1808. The following year, at the height of his poetic career, he was instrumental in establishing a Tory rival, ''
The Quarterly Review The ''Quarterly Review'' was a literary and political periodical founded in March 1809 by London publishing house John Murray. It ceased publication in 1967. It was referred to as ''The London Quarterly Review'', as reprinted by Leonard Scott, f ...
'' to which he contributed reviews for the rest of his life. In 1813 Scott was offered the position of
Poet Laureate A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch ...
. He declined, feeling that "such an appointment would be a poisoned chalice," as the Laureateship had fallen into disrepute due to the decline in quality of work suffered by previous title holders, "as a succession of poetasters had churned out conventional and obsequious odes on royal occasions." He sought advice from the 4th Duke of Buccleuch, who counselled him to retain his literary independence. The position went to Scott's friend,
Robert Southey Robert Southey ( or ; 12 August 1774 – 21 March 1843) was an English poet of the Romantic school, and Poet Laureate from 1813 until his death. Like the other Lake Poets, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Southey began as a ra ...
.


The novelist


Gothic novel

Scott was influenced by
Gothic romance Gothic fiction, sometimes called Gothic horror in the 20th century, is a loose literary aesthetic of fear and haunting. The name is a reference to Gothic architecture of the European Middle Ages, which was characteristic of the settings of ea ...
, and had collaborated in 1801 with 'Monk' Lewis on ''Tales of Wonder''.''The Bloomsbury Guide to English Literature'', ed. Marion Wynne Davis. New York: Prentice Hall, 1990, p. 885.


Historic romances

Scott's career as a novelist was attended with uncertainty. The first few chapters of ''Waverley'' were complete by roughly 1805, but the project was abandoned as a result of unfavourable criticism from a friend. Soon after, Scott was asked by the publisher John Murray to posthumously edit and complete the last chapter of an unfinished romance by Joseph Strutt. Published in 1808 and set in 15th-century England, ''Queenhoo Hall'' was not a success due to its archaic language and excessive display of antiquarian information. The success of his Highland narrative poem ''The Lady of the Lake'' in 1810 seems to have put it into his head to resume the narrative and have his hero Edward Waverley journey to Scotland. Although ''Waverley'' was announced for publication at that stage, it was again laid by and not resumed until late 1813, then published in 1814. Only a thousand copies were printed, but the work was an immediate success and 3,000 more were added in two further editions the same year. ''Waverley'' turned out to be the first of 27 novels (eight published in pairs), and by the time the sixth of them, ''Rob Roy'', was published, the print run for the first edition had been increased to 10,000 copies, which became the norm. Given Scott's established status as a poet and the tentative nature of ''Waverley''s emergence, it is not surprising that he followed a common practice in the period and published it anonymously. He continued this until his financial ruin in 1826, the novels mostly appearing as "By the Author of ''Waverley''" (or variants thereof) or as ''Tales of My Landlord''. It is not clear why he chose to do this (no fewer than eleven reasons have been suggested), especially as it was a fairly open secret, but as he himself said, with Shylock, "such was my humour." Scott was an almost exclusively historical novelist. Only one of his 27 novels – ''Saint Ronan's Well'' – has a wholly modern setting. The settings of the others range from 1794 in '' The Antiquary'' back to 1096 or 1097, the time of the First Crusade, in '' Count Robert of Paris''. Sixteen take place in Scotland. The first nine, from ''Waverley'' (1814) to '' A Legend of Montrose'' (1819), all have Scottish locations and 17th- or 18th-century settings. Scott was better versed in his material than anyone: he could draw on oral tradition and a wide range of written sources in his ever-expanding library (many of the books rare and some unique copies). In general it is these pre-1820 novels that have drawn the attention of modern critics – especially: ''Waverley'', with its presentation of the 1745 Jacobites drawn from the Highland clans as obsolete and fanatical idealists; ''Old Mortality'' (1816) with its treatment of the 1679 Covenanters as fanatical and often ridiculous (prompting
John Galt John Galt () is a character in Ayn Rand's novel ''Atlas Shrugged'' (1957). Although he is not identified by name until the last third of the novel, he is the object of its often-repeated question "Who is John Galt?" and of the quest to discover ...
to produce a contrasting picture in his novel ''Ringan Gilhaize'' in 1823); ''The Heart of Mid-Lothian'' (1818) with its low-born heroine Jeanie Deans making a perilous journey to Windsor in 1737 to secure a promised royal pardon for her sister, falsely accused of infanticide; and the tragic ''The Bride of Lammermoor'' (1819), with its stern account of a declined aristocratic family, with Edgar Ravenswood and his fiancée as victims of the wife of an upstart lawyer in a time of political power-struggle before the Act of Union in 1707. In 1820, in a bold move, Scott shifted period and location for ''Ivanhoe'' (1820) to 12th-century England. This meant he was dependent on a limited range of sources, all of them printed: he had to bring together material from different centuries and invent an artificial form of speech based on Elizabethan and Jacobean drama. The result is as much myth as history, but the novel remains his best-known work, the most likely to be found by the general reader. Eight of the subsequent 17 novels also have medieval settings, though most are set towards the end of the era, for which Scott had a better supply of contemporaneous sources. His familiarity with Elizabethan and 17th-century English literature, partly resulting from editorial work on pamphlets and other minor publications, meant that four of his works set in the England of that period – '' Kenilworth'' (1821), ''
The Fortunes of Nigel ''The Fortunes of Nigel'' (1822) is one of the Waverley novels by Sir Walter Scott. Set in London in either 1623 or 1624, it centres on the Scottish community there after the Union of the Crowns and features James VI and I . Composition and so ...
'' and ''
Peveril of the Peak ''Peveril of the Peak'' (1823) is the longest novel by Sir Walter Scott. Along with ''Ivanhoe'', ''Kenilworth'', and ''Woodstock'' this is one of the English novels in the Waverley novels series, with the main action taking place around 1678 in t ...
'' (1821), and ''
Woodstock Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock. Billed as "an Aq ...
'' (1826) – present rich pictures of their societies. The most generally esteemed of Scott's later fictions, though, are three short stories: a supernatural narrative in Scots, "Wandering Willie's Tale" in '' Redgauntlet'' (1824), and "The Highland Widow" and "The Two Drovers" in '' Chronicles of the Canongate'' (1827). Crucial to Scott's historical thinking is the concept that very different societies can move through the same stages as they develop, and that humanity is basically unchanging, or as he puts it in the first chapter of ''Waverley'' that there are "passions common to men in all stages of society, and which have alike agitated the human heart, whether it throbbed under the steel corslet of the fifteenth century, the brocaded coat of the eighteenth, or the blue frock and white dimity waistcoat of the present day." It was one of Scott's main achievements to give lively, detailed pictures of different stages of Scottish, British, and European society while making it clear that for all the differences in form, they took the same human passions as those of his own age. His readers could therefore appreciate the depiction of an unfamiliar society, while having no difficulty in relating to the characters. Scott is fascinated by striking moments of transition between stages in societies. Coleridge, in a discussion of his early novels, found that they derive their "long-sustained ''interest''" from "the contest between the two great moving Principles of social Humanity – religious adherence to the Past and the Ancient, the Desire & the admiration of Permanence, on the one hand; and the Passion for increase of Knowledge, for Truth as the offspring of Reason, in short, the mighty Instincts of ''Progression'' and ''Free-agency'', on the other." This is clear, for example, in ''Waverley'', as the hero is captivated by the romantic allure of the Jacobite cause embodied in Bonnie Prince Charlie and his followers before accepting that the time for such enthusiasms has passed and accepting the more rational, humdrum reality of Hanoverian Britain. Another example appears in 15th-century Europe in the yielding of the old chivalric world view of
Charles, Duke of Burgundy Charles I (Charles Martin; german: Karl Martin; nl, Karel Maarten; 10 November 1433 – 5 January 1477), nicknamed the Bold (German: ''der Kühne''; Dutch: ''de Stoute''; french: le Téméraire), was Duke of Burgundy from 1467 to 1477. ...
to the Machiavellian pragmatism of
Louis XI Louis XI (3 July 1423 – 30 August 1483), called "Louis the Prudent" (french: le Prudent), was King of France from 1461 to 1483. He succeeded his father, Charles VII. Louis entered into open rebellion against his father in a short-lived revol ...
. Scott is intrigued by the way different stages of societal development can exist side by side in one country. When Waverley has his first experience of Highland ways after a raid on his Lowland host's cattle, it "seemed like a dream ... that these deeds of violence should be familiar to men's minds, and currently talked of, as falling with the common order of things, and happening daily in the immediate neighbourhood, without his having crossed the seas, and while he was yet in the otherwise well-ordered island of Great Britain." A more complex version of this comes in Scott's second novel, ''
Guy Mannering ''Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer'' is the second of the Waverley novels by Walter Scott, published anonymously in 1815. According to an introduction that Scott wrote in 1829, he had originally intended to write a story of the supernatural, ...
'' (1815), which "set in 1781‒2, offers no simple opposition: the Scotland represented in the novel is at once backward and advanced, traditional and modern – it is a country in varied stages of progression in which there are many social subsets, each with its own laws and customs." Scott's process of composition can be traced through the manuscripts (mostly preserved), the more fragmentary sets of proofs, his correspondence, and publisher's records. He did not create detailed plans for his stories, and the remarks by the figure of "the Author" in the Introductory Epistle to ''The Fortunes of Nigel'' probably reflect his own experience: "I think there is a dæmon who seats himself on the feather of my pen when I begin to write, and leads it astray from the purpose. Characters expand under my hand; incidents are multiplied; the story lingers, while the materials increase – my regular mansion turns out a Gothic anomaly, and the work is complete long before I have attained the point I proposed." Yet the manuscripts rarely show major deletions or changes of direction, and Scott could clearly keep control of his narrative. That was important, for as soon as he had made fair progress with a novel he would start sending batches of manuscript to be copied (to preserve his anonymity), and the copies were sent to be set up in type. (As usual at the time, the compositors would supply the punctuation.) He received proofs, also in batches, and made many changes at that stage, but these were almost always local corrections and enhancements. As the number of novels grew, they were republished in small collections: ''Novels and Tales'' (1819: ''Waverley'' to ''A Tale of Montrose''); ''Historical Romances'' (1822: ''Ivanhoe'' to ''Kenilworth''); ''Novels and Romances'' (1824 823 '' The Pirate'' to '' Quentin Durward''); and two series of ''Tales and Romances'' (1827: ''St Ronan's Well'' to ''Woodstock''; 1833: ''Chronicles of the Canongate'' to ''
Castle Dangerous ''Castle Dangerous'' (1831) was the last of Walter Scott's Waverley novels. It is part of '' Tales of My Landlord, 4th series'', with ''Count Robert of Paris''. The castle of the title is Douglas Castle in Lanarkshire, and the action, based on a ...
''). In his last years Scott marked up interleaved copies of these collected editions to produce a final version of what were now officially the ''Waverley Novels'', often called his 'Magnum Opus' or 'Magnum Edition'. Scott provided each novel with an introduction and notes and made mostly piecemeal adjustments to the text. Issued in 48 smart monthly volumes between June 1829 and May 1833 at a modest price of five shillings (25p) these were an innovative and profitable venture aimed at a wide readership: the print run was an astonishing 30,000. In a "General Preface" to the "Magnum Edition", Scott wrote that one factor prompting him to resume work on the ''Waverley'' manuscript in 1813 had been a desire to do for Scotland what had been done in the fiction of
Maria Edgeworth Maria Edgeworth (1 January 1768 – 22 May 1849) was a prolific Anglo-Irish novelist of adults' and children's literature. She was one of the first realist writers in children's literature and was a significant figure in the evolution of the n ...
, "whose Irish characters have gone so far to make the English familiar with the character of their gay and kind-hearted neighbours of Ireland, that she may be truly said to have done more towards completing the Union, than perhaps all the legislative enactments by which it has been followed up Act_of_Union_of_1801.html" ;"title="Acts_of_Union_1801.html" ;"title="he Acts of Union 1801">Act of Union of 1801">Acts_of_Union_1801.html" ;"title="he Acts of Union 1801">Act of Union of 1801" Most of Scott's readers were English: with ''Quentin Durward'' (1823) and ''Woodstock'' (1826), for example, some 8000 of the 10,000 copies of the first edition went to London. In the Scottish novels the lower-class characters normally speak Scots, but Scott is careful not to make the Scots too dense, so that those unfamiliar with it can follow the gist without understanding every word. Some have also argued that although Scott was formally a supporter of the Union with England (and Ireland) his novels have a strong nationalist subtext for readers attuned to that wavelength. Scott's new career as a novelist in 1814 did not mean he abandoned poetry. The Waverley Novels contain much original verse, including familiar songs such as "Proud Maisie" from ''The Heart of Mid-Lothian'' (Ch. 41) and "Look not thou on Beauty's charming" from ''The Bride of Lammermoor'' (Ch. 3). In most of the novels Scott preceded each chapter with an epigram or "motto"; most of these are in verse, and many are of his own composition, often imitating other writers such as Beaumont and Fletcher.


Recovery of the Crown Jewels, baronetcy, and ceremonial pageantry

Prompted by Scott, the Prince Regent (the future
George IV George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from the death of his father, King George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten y ...
) gave Scott and other officials permission in a Royal Warrant dated 28 October 1817 to conduct a search for the Crown Jewels (" Honours of Scotland"). During the Protectorate under Cromwell these had been hidden away, but had subsequently been used to crown Charles II. They were not used to crown subsequent monarchs, but were regularly taken to sittings of Parliament, to represent the absent monarch, until the Act of Union 1707. So the honours were stored in Edinburgh Castle, but their large locked box was not opened for more than 100 years, and stories circulated that they had been "lost" or removed. On 4 February 1818, Scott and a small military team opened the box and "unearthed" the honours from the Crown Room of Edinburgh Castle. On 19 August 1818 through Scott's effort, his friend Adam Ferguson was appointed Deputy Keeper of the "
Scottish Regalia The Honours of Scotland (, gd, Seudan a' Chrùin Albannaich), informally known as the Scottish Crown Jewels, are the regalia that were worn by Scottish monarchs at their coronation. Kept in the Crown Room in Edinburgh Castle, they date from the ...
". The Scottish patronage system swung into action and after elaborate negotiations the Prince Regent granted Scott the title of
baronet A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14t ...
: in April 1820 he received the baronetcy in London, becoming Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet. After George's accession, the city council of Edinburgh invited Scott, at the sovereign's behest, to stage-manage the 1822 visit of King George IV to Scotland. In spite of having only three weeks to work with, Scott created a spectacular, comprehensive pageant, designed not only to impress the King, but in some way to heal the rifts that had destabilised Scots society. He used the event to contribute to drawing a line under an old world that pitched his homeland into regular bouts of bloody strife. Probably fortified by his vivid depiction of the pageant staged for the reception of Queen Elizabeth in ''Kenilworth'' he and his "production team" mounted what in modern days would be a PR event, with the King dressed in
tartan Tartan ( gd, breacan ) is a patterned cloth consisting of criss-crossed, horizontal and vertical bands in multiple colours. Tartans originated in woven wool, but now they are made in other materials. Tartan is particularly associated with Sc ...
and greeted by his people, many of them also in similar tartan ceremonial dress. This form of dress, proscribed after the Jacobite rising of 1745, became one of the seminal, potent and ubiquitous symbols of Scottish identity.


Financial problems and death

In 1825, a UK-wide
banking crisis A bank run or run on the bank occurs when many clients withdraw their money from a bank, because they believe the bank may cease to function in the near future. In other words, it is when, in a fractional-reserve banking system (where banks no ...
resulted in the collapse of the Ballantyne printing business, of which Scott was the only partner with a financial interest. Its debts of £130,000 () caused his very public ruin. Rather than declare himself bankrupt or accept any financial support from his many supporters and admirers (including the King himself), he placed his house and income in a trust belonging to his creditors and set out to write his way out of debt. To add to his burdens, his wife Charlotte died in 1826. Despite these events or because of them, Scott kept up his prodigious output. Between 1826 and 1832 he produced six novels, two short stories and two plays, eleven works or volumes of non-fiction, and a journal, along with several unfinished works. The non-fiction included the ''Life of Napoleon Buonaparte'' in 1827, two volumes of the ''History of Scotland'' in 1829 and 1830, and four instalments of the series entitled ''Tales of a Grandfather – Being Stories Taken From Scottish History'', written one per year over the period 1828–1831, among several others. Finally, Scott had recently been inspired by the diaries of Samuel Pepys and Lord Byron, and he began keeping a journal over the period, which, however, would not be published until 1890, as ''
The Journal of Sir Walter Scott ''The Journal of Sir Walter Scott'' is a diary which the novelist and poet Walter Scott kept between 1825 and 1832. It records the financial disaster which overtook him at the beginning of 1826, and the efforts he made over the next seven years t ...
''. By then Scott's health was failing, and on 29 October 1831, in a vain search for improvement, he set off on a voyage to Malta and Naples on board ''HMS Barham'', a frigate put at his disposal by the Admiralty. He was welcomed and celebrated wherever he went. On his journey home he boarded the steamboat ''Prins Frederik'' going from Cologne to Rotterdam. While on board he had a final stroke near Emmerich. After local treatment, a steamboat took him to the steamship ''Batavier'', which left for England on 12 June. By pure coincidence, Mary Martha Sherwood was also on board. She would later write about this encounter. After he was landed in England, Scott was transported back to die at Abbotsford on 21 September 1832. He was 61. Scott was buried in
Dryburgh Abbey Dryburgh Abbey, near Dryburgh on the banks of the River Tweed in the Scottish Borders, was nominally founded on 10 November (Martinmas) 1150 in an agreement between Hugh de Morville, Constable of Scotland, and the Premonstratensian canons regu ...
, where his wife had earlier been interred. Lady Scott had been buried as an Episcopalian; at Scott's own funeral, three ministers of the Church of Scotland officiated at Abbotsford and the service at Dryburgh was conducted by an Episcopal clergyman. Although Scott died owing money, his novels continued to sell, and the debts encumbering his estate were discharged shortly after his death.


Religion

Scott was raised as a
Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...
in the Church of Scotland. He was ordained as an elder in
Duddingston Kirk Duddingston Kirk is a Parish Church in the Church of Scotland, located adjacent to Holyrood Park in Duddingston Village, on the east side of the City of Edinburgh. Regular services are held at the kirk, conducted by the minister, Rev Dr James ...
in 1806, and sat in the General Assembly for a time as representative elder of the burgh of Selkirk. In adult life he also adhered to the
Scottish Episcopal Church The Scottish Episcopal Church ( gd, Eaglais Easbaigeach na h-Alba; sco, Scots Episcopal(ian) Kirk) is the ecclesiastical province of the Anglican Communion in Scotland. A continuation of the Church of Scotland as intended by King James VI, and ...
: he seldom attended church but read the Book of Common Prayer services in family worship.


Freemasonry

Scott's father was a Freemason, being a member of Lodge St David, No. 36 (Edinburgh), and Scott also became a Freemason in his father's Lodge in 1801, albeit only after the death of his father.


Abbotsford House

When Scott was a boy, he sometimes travelled with his father from Selkirk to Melrose, where some of his novels are set. At a certain spot, the old gentleman would stop the carriage and take his son to a stone on the site of the
Battle of Melrose The Battle of Melrose was a Scottish clan battle that took place on 25 July 1526.Battle of Melros ...
(1526). During the summers from 1804, Scott made his home at the large house of Ashestiel, on the south bank of the River Tweed, north of Selkirk. When his lease on this property expired in 1811, he bought Cartley Hole Farm, downstream on the Tweed nearer Melrose. The farm had the nickname of " Clarty Hole", and Scott renamed it "Abbotsford" after a neighbouring ford used by the monks of
Melrose Abbey St Mary's Abbey, Melrose is a partly ruined monastery of the Cistercian order in Melrose, Roxburghshire, in the Scottish Borders. It was founded in 1136 by Cistercian monks at the request of King David I of Scotland and was the chief house of th ...
. Following a modest enlargement of the original farmhouse in 1811–12, massive expansions took place in 1816–19 and 1822–24. Scott described the resulting building as 'a sort of romance in Architecture' and 'a kind of Conundrum Castle to be sure'. With his architects William Atkinson and Edward Blore Scott was a pioneer of the Scottish Baronial style of architecture, and Abbotsford is festooned with turrets and stepped gabling. Through windows enriched with the insignia of heraldry the sun shone on suits of armour, trophies of the chase, a library of more than 9,000 volumes, fine furniture, and still finer pictures. Panelling of oak and cedar and carved ceilings relieved by coats of arms in their correct colours added to the beauty of the house. It is estimated that the building cost Scott more than £25,000 (). More land was purchased until Scott owned nearly . In 1817 as part of the land purchases Scott bought the nearby mansion-house of Toftfield for his friend Adam Ferguson to live in along with his brothers and sisters and on which, at the ladies' request, he bestowed the name of Huntlyburn. Ferguson commissioned Sir David Wilkie to paint the Scott family resulting in the painting ''The Abbotsford Family'' in which Scott is seated with his family represented as a group of country folk. Ferguson is standing to the right with the feather in his cap and Thomas Scott, Scott's Uncle, is behind. The painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1818. Abbotsford later gave its name to the Abbotsford Club, founded in 1834 in memory of Sir Walter Scott.


Reputation


Later assessment

Although he continued to be extremely popular and widely read, both at home and abroad, Scott's critical reputation declined in the last half of the 19th century as serious writers turned from romanticism to realism, and Scott began to be regarded as an author suitable for children. This trend accelerated in the 20th century. For example, in his classic study '' Aspects of the Novel'' (1927),
E. M. Forster Edward Morgan Forster (1 January 1879 – 7 June 1970) was an English author, best known for his novels, particularly ''A Room with a View'' (1908), ''Howards End'' (1910), and ''A Passage to India'' (1924). He also wrote numerous short stori ...
harshly criticized Scott's clumsy and slapdash writing style, "flat" characters, and thin plots. In contrast, the novels of Scott's contemporary Jane Austen, once appreciated only by the discerning few (including, as it happened, Scott himself) rose steadily in critical esteem, though Austen, as a female writer, was still faulted for her narrow ("feminine") choice of subject matter, which, unlike Scott, avoided the grand historical themes traditionally viewed as masculine. Nevertheless, Scott's importance as an innovator continued to be recognised. He was acclaimed as the inventor of the genre of the modern historical novel (which others trace to
Jane Porter Jane Porter (3 December 1775 – 24 May 1850) was an English historical novelist, dramatist and literary figure. Her bestselling novels, ''Thaddeus of Warsaw'' (1803) and ''The Scottish Chiefs'' (1810) are seen as among the earliest historical ...
, whose work in the genre predates Scott's) and the inspiration for enormous numbers of imitators and genre writers both in Britain and on the European continent. In the cultural sphere, Scott's Waverley novels played a significant part in the movement (begun with
James Macpherson James Macpherson (Gaelic: ''Seumas MacMhuirich'' or ''Seumas Mac a' Phearsain''; 27 October 1736 – 17 February 1796) was a Scottish writer, poet, literary collector and politician, known as the "translator" of the Ossian cycle of epic poem ...
's '' Ossian'' cycle) in rehabilitating the public perception of the
Scottish Highlands The Highlands ( sco, the Hielands; gd, a’ Ghàidhealtachd , 'the place of the Gaels') is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland S ...
and its culture, which had been formerly been viewed by the southern mind as a barbaric breeding ground of hill bandits, religious fanaticism, and Jacobite risings. Scott served as chairman of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and was also a member of the Royal Celtic Society. His own contribution to the reinvention of Scottish culture was enormous, even though his re-creations of the customs of the
Highlands Highland is a broad term for areas of higher elevation, such as a mountain range or mountainous plateau. Highland, Highlands, or The Highlands, may also refer to: Places Albania * Dukagjin Highlands Armenia * Armenian Highlands Australia *Sou ...
were fanciful at times. Through the medium of Scott's novels, the violent religious and political conflicts of the country's recent past could be seen as belonging to history—which Scott defined, as the subtitle of ''Waverley'' ("'Tis Sixty Years Since") indicates, as something that happened at least 60 years earlier. His advocacy of objectivity and moderation and his strong repudiation of political violence on either side also had a strong, though unspoken, contemporary resonance in an era when many conservative English speakers lived in mortal fear of a revolution in the French style on British soil. Scott's orchestration of King George IV's visit to Scotland, in 1822, was a pivotal event intended to inspire a view of his home country that accentuated the positive aspects of the past while allowing the age of quasi-medieval blood-letting to be put to rest, while envisioning a more useful, peaceful future. After Scott's work had been essentially unstudied for many decades, a revival of critical interest began in the middle of the 20th century. While F. R. Leavis had disdained Scott, seeing him as a thoroughly bad novelist and a thoroughly bad influence ('' The Great Tradition'' 948,
György Lukács György Lukács (born György Bernát Löwinger; hu, szegedi Lukács György Bernát; german: Georg Bernard Baron Lukács von Szegedin; 13 April 1885 – 4 June 1971) was a Hungarian Marxist philosopher, literary historian, critic, and aesth ...
(''The Historical Novel'' [1937, trans. 1962]) and David Daiches (''Scott's Achievement as a Novelist'' [1951]) offered a Marxian political reading of Scott's fiction that generated a great deal of genuine interest in his work. These were followed in 1966 by a major thematic analysis covering most of the novels by Francis R. Hart (''Scott's Novels: The Plotting of Historic Survival''). Scott has proved particularly responsive to Postmodern approaches, most notably to the concept of the interplay of multiple voices highlighted by Mikhail Bakhtin, as suggested by the title of the volume with selected papers from the Fourth International Scott Conference held in Edinburgh in 1991, ''Scott in Carnival''. Scott is now increasingly recognised not only as the principal inventor of the historical novel and a key figure in the development of Scottish and world literature, but also as a writer of a depth and subtlety who challenges his readers as well as entertaining them.


Memorials and commemoration

During his lifetime, Scott's portrait was painted by Sir Edwin Landseer and fellow Scots Sir Henry Raeburn and James Eckford Lauder. In Edinburgh, the 61.1-metre-tall Victorian Gothic spire of the Scott Monument was designed by George Meikle Kemp. It was completed in 1844, 12 years after Scott's death, and dominates the south side of Princes Street. Scott is also commemorated on a stone slab in Makars' Court, outside The Writers' Museum, Lawnmarket, Edinburgh, along with other prominent Scottish writers; quotes from his work are also visible on the Canongate Wall of the Scottish Parliament building in Holyrood, Edinburgh, Holyrood. There is a tower dedicated to his memory on Corstorphine Hill in the west of the city and Edinburgh's Waverley railway station, opened in 1854, takes its name from his first novel. In Glasgow, public statues in Glasgow#George Square, Walter Scott's Monument dominates the centre of George Square, the main public square in the city. Designed by David Rhind in 1838, the monument features a large column topped by a statue of Scott. There is a statue of Scott in New York City's Central Park. Numerous Masonic Lodges have been named after Scott and his novels. For example: Lodge Sir Walter Scott, No. 859 (Perth, Australia) and Lodge Waverley, No. 597, (Edinburgh, Scotland). The annual Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction was created in 2010 by the Duke of Buccleuch, Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch, whose ancestors were closely linked to Sir Walter Scott. At £25,000, it is one of the largest prizes in British literature. The award has been presented at Scott's historic home, Abbotsford House. Scott has been credited with rescuing the Banknotes of the pound sterling, Scottish banknote. In 1826, there was outrage in Scotland at the attempt of Parliament of the United Kingdom, Parliament to prevent the production of banknotes of less than five pounds. Scott wrote a series of letters to the ''Edinburgh Weekly Journal'' under the pseudonym "''Malachi Malagrowther''" for retaining the right of Scottish banks to issue their own banknotes. This provoked such a response that the Government was forced to relent and allow the Scottish banks to continue printing pound notes. This campaign is commemorated by his continued appearance on the front of all notes issued by the Bank of Scotland. The image on the 2007 series of banknotes is based on the portrait by Henry Raeburn. During and immediately after World War I there was a movement spearheaded by Woodrow Wilson, President Wilson and other eminent people to Effect of World War I on children in the United States, inculcate patriotism in American school children, especially immigrants, and to stress the American connection with the literature and institutions of the "mother country" of Great Britain, using selected readings in middle school textbooks. Scott's ''Ivanhoe'' continued to be required reading for many American high school students until the end of the 1950s. A bust of Scott is in the Hall of Heroes of the National Wallace Monument in Stirling. Twelve streets in Vancouver, British Columbia are named after Scott's books or characters. In The Inch, Edinburgh, The Inch district of Edinburgh, some 30 streets developed in the early 1950s are named for Scott (Sir Walter Scott Avenue) and for characters and places from his poems and novels. Examples include Saddletree Loan (after Bartoline Saddletree, a character in ''The Heart of Midlothian''), Hazelwood Grove (after Charles Hazelwood, a character in ''
Guy Mannering ''Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer'' is the second of the Waverley novels by Walter Scott, published anonymously in 1815. According to an introduction that Scott wrote in 1829, he had originally intended to write a story of the supernatural, ...
'') and Redgauntlet Terrace (after the 1824 Redgauntlet, novel of that name).


Influence


On novelists

Walter Scott had an immense impact throughout Europe. "His historical fiction ... created for the first time a sense of the past as a place where people thought, felt and dressed differently". His historical romances "influenced Balzac, Dostoevsky, Flaubert, Tolstoy, Alexandre Dumas, Dumas, Pushkin, and many others; and his interpretation of history was seized on by Romantic nationalism, Romantic nationalists, particularly in Eastern Europe"."Abstract": M. Pittock, ed., ''The Reception of Sir Walter Scott in Europe''. Also highly influential were the early translations into French by Auguste Defauconpret, Defauconpret. Letitia Elizabeth Landon was a great admirer of Scott and, on his death, she wrote two tributes to him: ''On Walter Scott'' in the Literary Gazette, and ''Sir Walter Scott'' in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1833. Towards the end of her life she began a series called ''The Female Picture Gallery'' with a series of character analyses based on the women in Scott's works. Victor Hugo, in his 1823 essay, ''Sir Walter Scott: Apropos of Quentin Durward'', writes: Alessandro Manzoni's ''The Betrothed (Manzoni novel), The Betrothed'' (1827) has similarities with Walter Scott's historic novel '' Ivanhoe'', although evidently distinct. In Charles Baudelaire's ''La Fanfarlo'' (1847), poet Samuel Cramer says of Scott: In the novella, however, Cramer proves as deluded a romantic as any hero in one of Scott's novels. Jane Austen, in a letter to her nephew James Edward Austen on 16 December 1816, writes: In Jane Austen's ''Persuasion (novel), Persuasion'' (1817) Anne Elliot and Captain James Benwick discuss the "richness of the present age" of poetry, and whether '' Marmion'' or '' The Lady of the Lake'' is the more preferred work. Mary Shelley, while researching for her historical novel, ''The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck'' (1830), wrote a letter to Walter Scott on 25 May 1829, asking him for information on any works or manuscripts he knew about Perkin Warbeck, she concludes the letter: In Charlotte Brontë's ''Jane Eyre'' (1847) St. John Rivers gives a copy of '' Marmion'' to Jane to provide her "evening solace" during her stay in her small lodging. Emily Brontë's ''Wuthering Heights'' was influenced by the novels of Walter Scott. In particular, according to Juliet Barker, '' Rob Roy'' (1817) had a significant influence on Brontë's novel, which, though "regarded as the archetypal Yorkshire novel ... owed as much, if not more, to Walter Scott's Border country". ''Rob Roy'' is set "in the wilds of Northumberland, among the uncouth and quarrelsome squirearchical Osbaldistones", while Cathy Earnshaw "has strong similarities with Diana Vernon, who is equally out of place among her boorish relations" (Barker p. 501). In Anne Brontë's ''The Tenant of Wildfell Hall'' (1848) the narrator, Gilbert Markham, brings an elegantly bound copy of '' Marmion'' as a present to the independent "tenant of Wildfell Hall" (Helen Graham) whom he is courting, and is mortified when she insists on paying for it. In George Eliot's ''Middlemarch'' (1871), Mr. Trumbull remarks to Mary Garth: Thomas Hardy, in his 1888 essay, ''The Profitable Reading of Fiction'', writes: The many other British novelists whom Scott influenced included Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Charles Kingsley, and Robert Louis Stevenson. He also shaped children's writers like Charlotte Yonge and G. A. Henty. Nathaniel Hawthorne, in a letter to his sister Elizabeth on 31 October 1820, writes: Edgar Allan Poe, an admirer of Scott, was particularly captivated with ''
The Bride of Lammermoor ''The Bride of Lammermoor'' is a historical novel by Sir Walter Scott, published in 1819, one of the Waverley novels. The novel is set in the Lammermuir Hills of south-east Scotland, shortly before the Act of Union of 1707 (in the first editio ...
'', calling it "that purest, and most enthralling of fictions", and "the master novel of Scott." In a speech delivered at Salem, Massachusetts, on 6 January 1860, to raise money for the families of the executed abolitionist John Brown (abolitionist), John Brown and his followers, Ralph Waldo Emerson calls Brown an example of true chivalry, which consists not in noble birth but in helping the weak and defenseless and declares that "Walter Scott would have delighted to draw his picture and trace his adventurous career." Henry James, in his 1864 essay, ''Fiction and Sir Walter Scott'', writes: In his 1870 memoir, ''Army Life in a Black Regiment'', New England abolitionist Thomas Wentworth Higginson (later editor of Emily Dickinson), described how he wrote down and preserved Negro spirituals or "shouts" while serving as a colonel in the First South Carolina Volunteers, the first authorized Union Army regiment recruited from freedmen during the Civil War. He wrote that he was "a faithful student of the Scottish ballads, and had always envied Sir Walter the delight of tracing them out amid their own heather, and of writing them down piecemeal from the lips of aged crones." According to Marx's daughter Eleanor Marx, Eleanor, Scott was "an author to whom Karl Marx again and again returned, whom he admired and knew as well as he did Balzac and Fielding." Mark Twain, in his 1883 ''Life on the Mississippi'', satirized the impact of Scott's writings, declaring with humorous hyperbole that Scott "had so large a hand in making Southern character, as it existed before the American Civil War, [American Civil] war" that he is "in great measure responsible for the war." He goes on to coin the term "Sir Walter Scott disease", describing a respect for aristocracy, a social acceptance of duels and vendettas, and a taste for fantasy and romanticism, which he blames for the South's lack of advancement. Twain also targeted Scott in ''Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'', where he names a sinking boat the "Walter Scott" (1884); and, in ''A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court'' (1889), the main character repeatedly utters "Great Scott!" as an oath; by the end of the book, however, he has become absorbed in the world of knights in armour, reflecting Twain's ambivalence on the topic. In ''Anne of Green Gables'' (1908) by Lucy Maude Montgomery, as Anne Shirley, Anne is bringing in the cows from pasture: The idyllic Cape Cod retreat of suffragists Verena Tarrant and Olive Chancellor in Henry James's ''The Bostonians'' (1886) is called Marmion, evoking what James considered the Quixotic idealism of such social reformers. In ''To the Lighthouse'' by Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Ramsey glances at her husband: Virginia Woolf, in a letter to Hugh Walpole on 12 September 1932, writes: John Cowper Powys described Walter Scott's romances as "by far the most powerful literary influence of my life". This can be seen particularly in his two historical novels, ''Porius: A Romance of the Dark Ages'', set during the end of Roman Britain#End of Roman rule, Roman rule in Britain, and ''Owen Glendower (novel), Owen Glendower''. In 1951, science-fiction author Isaac Asimov wrote ''Breeds There a Man...?'', a short story with a title alluding vividly to Scott's '' The Lay of the Last Minstrel'' (1805). In Harper Lee's ''To Kill a Mockingbird'' (1960), the protagonist's brother is made to read Walter Scott's book '' Ivanhoe'' to the ailing Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose. In ''Mother Night'' (1961) by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., memoirist and playwright Howard W. Campbell Jr. prefaces his text with the six lines beginning "Breathes there the man..." In ''Knights of the Sea'' (2010) by Canadian author Paul Marlowe, there are several references to '' Marmion'', as well as an inn named after '' Ivanhoe'', and a fictitious Scott novel entitled ''The Beastmen of Glen Glammoch''.


The other arts

Although Scott's own appreciation of music was basic, to say the least, he had a considerable influence on composers. Some 90 operas based to some extent on his poems and novels have been traced, the most celebrated being Gioachino Rossini, Rossini's ''La donna del lago'' (1819, based on ''The Lady of the Lake'') and Gaetano Donizetti, Donizetti's ''Lucia di Lammermoor'' (1835, based on ''
The Bride of Lammermoor ''The Bride of Lammermoor'' is a historical novel by Sir Walter Scott, published in 1819, one of the Waverley novels. The novel is set in the Lammermuir Hills of south-east Scotland, shortly before the Act of Union of 1707 (in the first editio ...
''). Others include Donizetti's 1829 opera ''Il castello di Kenilworth'' based on '' Kenilworth'', Georges Bizet's La jolie fille de Perth (1867, based on ''The Fair Maid of Perth''), and Arthur Sullivan's ''Ivanhoe (opera), Ivanhoe'' (1891). Many of Scott's songs were set to music by composers throughout the 19th century. Seven from ''The Lady of the Lake'' were set in German translations by Franz Schubert, Schubert, one of them being 'Ellens dritter Gesang' popularly known as 'Schubert's ''Ave Maria. Three lyrics, also in translation, appear from Ludwig van Beethoven, Beethoven in his ''Twenty-Five Scottish Songs (Beethoven), Twenty-Five Scottish Songs'', Op. 108. Other notable musical responses include three overtures: ''Waverley'' (1828) and ''Rob Roy'' (1831) by Hector Berlioz, Berlioz, and ''The Land of the Mountain and the Flood'' (1887, alluding to ''The Lay of the Last Minstrel'') by Hamish MacCunn. "Hail to the Chief" from "The Lady of the Lake" was set to music around 1812 by the songwriter James Sanderson (c. 1769 – c. 1841). See the Wikipedia article "Hail to the Chief." The Waverley Novels are full of eminently paintable scenes and many 19th-century artists responded to them. Among the outstanding paintings of Scott subjects are: Richard Parkes Bonington's ''Amy Robsart and the Earl of Leicester'' (''c.'' 1827) from ''Kenilworth'' in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; Eugène Delacroix, Delacroix's ''L'Enlèvement de Rebecca'' (1846) from '' Ivanhoe'' in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and John Everett Millais, Millais's ''
The Bride of Lammermoor ''The Bride of Lammermoor'' is a historical novel by Sir Walter Scott, published in 1819, one of the Waverley novels. The novel is set in the Lammermuir Hills of south-east Scotland, shortly before the Act of Union of 1707 (in the first editio ...
'' (1878) in Bristol Museum and Art Gallery.


In fiction

Walter Scott features as a character in Sara Sheridan's novel ''The Fair Botanists'' (2021).


Works


Novels

The Waverley Novels is the title given to the long series of Scott novels released from 1814 to 1832 which takes its name from the first novel, ''
Waverley Waverley may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Waverley'' (novel), by Sir Walter Scott ** ''Waverley'' Overture, a work by Hector Berlioz inspired by Scott's novel * Waverley Harrison, a character in the New Zealand soap opera ''Shortland Stree ...
''. The following is a chronological list of the entire series: *1814: ''
Waverley Waverley may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Waverley'' (novel), by Sir Walter Scott ** ''Waverley'' Overture, a work by Hector Berlioz inspired by Scott's novel * Waverley Harrison, a character in the New Zealand soap opera ''Shortland Stree ...
'' *1815: ''
Guy Mannering ''Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer'' is the second of the Waverley novels by Walter Scott, published anonymously in 1815. According to an introduction that Scott wrote in 1829, he had originally intended to write a story of the supernatural, ...
'' *1816: '' The Antiquary'' *1816: ''The Black Dwarf (novel), The Black Dwarf'' and ''
Old Mortality ''Old Mortality'' is one of the Waverley novels by Walter Scott. Set in south west Scotland, it forms, along with ''The Black Dwarf'', the 1st series of his '' Tales of My Landlord'' (1816). The novel deals with the period of the Covenanters, ...
'' or ''The Tale of Old Mortality'' – the 1st instalment from the subset series, Tales of My Landlord *1817: '' Rob Roy'' *1818: '' The Heart of Mid-Lothian'' – the 2nd instalment from the subset series, Tales of My Landlord *1819: ''
The Bride of Lammermoor ''The Bride of Lammermoor'' is a historical novel by Sir Walter Scott, published in 1819, one of the Waverley novels. The novel is set in the Lammermuir Hills of south-east Scotland, shortly before the Act of Union of 1707 (in the first editio ...
'' and '' A Legend of Montrose'' or ''A Legend of the Wars of Montrose'' – the 3rd instalment from the subset series, Tales of My Landlord *1819 (dated 1820): '' Ivanhoe'' *1820: ''The Monastery'' *1820: ''The Abbot'' *1821: '' Kenilworth'' *1822: '' The Pirate'' *1822: ''
The Fortunes of Nigel ''The Fortunes of Nigel'' (1822) is one of the Waverley novels by Sir Walter Scott. Set in London in either 1623 or 1624, it centres on the Scottish community there after the Union of the Crowns and features James VI and I . Composition and so ...
'' *1822: ''
Peveril of the Peak ''Peveril of the Peak'' (1823) is the longest novel by Sir Walter Scott. Along with ''Ivanhoe'', ''Kenilworth'', and ''Woodstock'' this is one of the English novels in the Waverley novels series, with the main action taking place around 1678 in t ...
'' *1823: '' Quentin Durward'' *1824: ''St. Ronan's Well'' or ''Saint Ronan's Well'' *1824: '' Redgauntlet'' *1825: ''The Betrothed (Walter Scott novel), The Betrothed'' and ''The Talisman (Scott novel), The Talisman'' – a subset series, Tales of the Crusaders *1826: ''
Woodstock Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock. Billed as "an Aq ...
'' *1827: '' Chronicles of the Canongate'' — containing two short stories ("The Highland Widow" and "The Two Drovers") and a novel (''The Surgeon's Daughter'') *1828: ''The Fair Maid of Perth'' – the 2nd instalment from the subset series, Chronicles of the Canongate *1829: ''Anne of Geierstein'' *1832: '' Count Robert of Paris'' and ''
Castle Dangerous ''Castle Dangerous'' (1831) was the last of Walter Scott's Waverley novels. It is part of '' Tales of My Landlord, 4th series'', with ''Count Robert of Paris''. The castle of the title is Douglas Castle in Lanarkshire, and the action, based on a ...
'' – the 4th instalment from the subset series, Tales of My Landlord Other novels: *1831–1832: ''The Siege of Malta (novel), The Siege of Malta'' – a finished novel published posthumously in 2008 *1832: ''Bizarro (novel), Bizarro'' – an unfinished novel (or novella) published posthumously in 2008


Poetry

Many of the short poems or songs released by Scott (or later anthologized) were originally not separate pieces but parts of longer poems interspersed throughout his novels, tales, and dramas. *1796: ''Translations and Imitations from German Ballads by Sir Walter Scott, The Chase, and William and Helen: Two Ballads, translated from the German of Gottfried Augustus Bürger'' *1800: ''Glenfinlas (poem), Glenfinlas'' *1802–1803: ''Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border'' *1805: '' The Lay of the Last Minstrel'' *1806: ''Ballads and Lyrical Pieces'' *1808: Marmion (poem), ''Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field'' *1810: The Lady of the Lake (poem), ''The Lady of the Lake'' *1811: ''
The Vision of Don Roderick ''The Vision of Don Roderick'' is a poem in Spenserian stanzas by Sir Walter Scott, published in 1811. It celebrated the recent victories of the Duke of Wellington during the Peninsular War, and proceeds of its sale were to raise funds for Port ...
'' *1813: The Bridal of Triermain by Walter Scott, ''The Bridal of Triermain'' *1813: Rokeby (poem), ''Rokeby'' *1815: '' The Field of Waterloo'' *1815: ''
The Lord of the Isles ''The Lord of the Isles'' is a narrative poem by Walter Scott in six cantos with substantial notes. Set in 1307 and 1314 Scotland it covers the story of Robert the Bruce from his return from exile in Ireland to the successful culmination of his ...
'' *1817: '' Harold the Dauntless'' *1825: ''Bonnie Dundee''


Short stories

*1811: "The Inferno of Altisidora" *1817: "Christopher Corduroy" *1818: "Alarming Increase of Depravity Among Animals" *1818: "Phantasmagoria" *1827: "The Highland Widow" and "The Two Drovers" (see ''Chronicles of the Canongate'' above) *1828: "My Aunt Margaret's Mirror", "The Tapestried Chamber", and "Death of the Laird's Jock" – from the series ''The Keepsake Stories'' *1832: "A Highland Anecdote"


Plays

*1799: ''Götz von Berlichingen (Goethe), Goetz of Berlichingen, with the Iron Hand: A Tragedy'' – an English-language translation of the 1773 German-language play by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe entitled ''Götz von Berlichingen (Goethe), Götz von Berlichingen'' *1822: ''Halidon Hill'' *1823: ''MacDuff's Cross'' *1830: ''The Doom of Devorgoil'' *1830: ''Auchindrane''


Non-fiction

*1814–1817: ''The Border Antiquities of England and Scotland'' – a work co-authored by Luke Clennell and John Greig with Scott's contribution consisting of the substantial introductory essay, originally published in 2 volumes from 1814 to 1817 *1815–1824: ''Essays on Chivalry, Romance, and Drama'' – a supplement to the 1815–1824 editions of the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' *1816: ''Paul's Letters to his Kinsfolk'' *1819–1826: ''Provincial Antiquities of Scotland'' *1821–1824: ''Lives of the Novelists'' *1825–1832: ''
The Journal of Sir Walter Scott ''The Journal of Sir Walter Scott'' is a diary which the novelist and poet Walter Scott kept between 1825 and 1832. It records the financial disaster which overtook him at the beginning of 1826, and the efforts he made over the next seven years t ...
'' — first published in 1890 *1826: ''The Letters of Malachi Malagrowther'' *1827: ''The Life of Napoleon Buonaparte'' *1828: ''Religious Discourses. By a Layman'' *1828: ''Tales of a Grandfather; Being Stories Taken from Scottish History'' – the 1st instalment from the series, Tales of a Grandfather *1829: ''The History of Scotland: Volume I'' *1829: ''Tales of a Grandfather; Being Stories Taken from Scottish History'' – the 2nd instalment from the series, Tales of a Grandfather *1830: ''The History of Scotland: Volume II'' *1830: ''Tales of a Grandfather; Being Stories Taken from Scottish History'' – the 3rd instalment from the series, Tales of a Grandfather *1830: ''Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft'' *1831: ''Tales of a Grandfather; Being Stories Taken from the History of France'' – the 4th instalment from the series, Tales of a Grandfather *1831: ''Tales of a Grandfather: The History of France (Second Series)'' — unfinished; published 1996


Archives

In 1925 Scott's manuscripts, letters and papers were donated to the National Library of Scotland by the Advocates Library of the
Faculty of Advocates The Faculty of Advocates is an independent body of lawyers who have been admitted to practise as advocates before the courts of Scotland, especially the Court of Session and the High Court of Justiciary. The Faculty of Advocates is a constit ...
.Brown, Iain Gordon (2000). "Collecting Scott for Scotland: 1850–2000." ''The Book Collector'' 49 no.4 (winter): 502–534. Article by the curator of the Scott Collection at the National Library of Scotland expanded from his presentation at the 35th Congress of the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers, Edinburgh, September 18, 2000.


See also

*Jedediah Cleishbotham (fictional editor of ''Tales of My Landlord'', and Scott's ''alter ego'') *G. A. Henty *Karl May *Baroness Orczy *Rafael Sabatini *Emilio Salgari *List of people on banknotes#Scotland, People on Scottish banknotes *Samuel Shellabarger *Lawrence Schoonover *Jules Verne *Frank Yerby *GWR Waverley Class steam locomotives *List of books for the "Famous Scots Series", "Famous Scots Series" *Principal Clerk of Session and Justiciary *Writers' Museum


References


Cited sources

* * *


Further reading

*''Approaches to Teaching Scott's Waverley Novels'', ed. Evan Gottlieb and Ian Duncan (New York, 2009). *Bautz, Annika. ''Reception of Jane Austen and Walter Scott: A Comparative Longitudinal Study''. Continuum, 2007. , . * *Brown, David. ''Walter Scott and the Historical Imagination''. Routledge, 1979, ; Kindle ed. 2013. *John Buchan, Buchan, John. ''Sir Walter Scott'', Coward-McCann Inc., New York, 1932. *Calder, Angus (1983), ''Scott & Goethe: Romanticism and Classicism'', in Hearn, Sheila G. (ed.), ''Cencrastus'' No. 13, Summer 1983, pp. 25–28, * *Cornish, Sidney W. ''The "Waverley" Manual; or, Handbook of the Chief Characters, Incidents, and Descriptions in the "Waverley" Novels, with Critical Breviates from Various Sources''. Edinburgh: A. and C. Black, 1871. *Crawford, Thomas, ''Scott'', Kennedy & Boyd, 2013 *Duncan, Ian. ''Scott's Shadow: The Novel in Romantic Edinburgh''. Princeton UP, 2007. . *Ferris, Ina. ''The Achievement of Literary Authority: Gender, History, and the Waverley Novels'' (Ithaca, New York, 1991). *Hart, Francis R.. ''Scott's Novels: The Plotting of Historic Survival'' (Charlottesville, Virginia, 1966). *Kelly, Stuart. ''Scott-Land: The Man Who Invented a Nation''. Polygon, 2010. . *Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Landon, Letitia Elizabeth, ''The Female Portrait Gallery''. A series of 22 analyses of Scott's female characters (curtailed by Letitia's death in 1838). Laman Blanchard: ''Life and Literary Remains of L.E.L.'', 1841. Vol. 2. pp. 81–194. *Lincoln, Andrew. ''Walter Scott And Modernity''. Edinburgh UP, 2007. *Millgate, Jane. ''Walter Scott: The Making of the Novelist'' (Edinburgh, 1984). *Oliver, Susan.
Walter Scott and the Greening of Scotland: Emergent Ecologies of a Nation
'. Cambridge University Press, 2021. *Ann Rigney, Rigney, Ann. ''The Afterlives of Walter Scott: Memory on the Move''. Oxford UP, 2012. * *''Scott in Carnival: Selected Papers from the Fourth International Scott Conference, Edinburgh, 1991'', ed. J. H. Alexander and David Hewitt (Aberdeen, 1993). *Scott, Paul Henderson. ''Walter Scott and Scotland'', William Blackwood, Edinburgh, 1981, *Shaw, Harry, ''Scott, Scotland and Repression'', in Bold, Christine (ed.), ''Cencrastus'' No. 3, Summer 1980, pp. 26 – 28. *Robertson, Fiona, ''The Edinburgh Companion to Sir Walter Scott.'' Edinburgh University Press, 2012. *Tulloch, Graham. ''The Language of Walter Scott: A Study of his Scottish and Period Language'' (London, 1980). *''Walter Scott: New Interpretations, The Yearbook of English Studies''. Vol. 47. 2017. Modern Humanities Research Association
DOI: 10.5699/yearenglstud.47.issue-2017
*Welsh, Alexander. ''The Hero of the Waverley Novels'' (New Haven, 1963).


External links

* * * *
Works by Walter Scott
at The Online Books Page
Sir Walter Scott and Hinx, his CatThe Edinburgh Sir Walter Scott Club''Sir Walter Scott''
biography by Richard H. Hutton, 1878 (from Project Gutenberg) *
Walter Scott's profile and catalogue of his library at Abbotsford
on LibraryThing.
Guardian Books – Sir Walter ScottPortraits at the National Portrait Gallery
*Bust of Walter Scott by Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey, 1828, white marble, Philadelphia Museum of Art, # 2002.222.1, Philadelphia (PA).
Sir Walter Scotts friends by Florence MacCunn 1910.Scottish Freemasonry (The Grand Lodge of Scotland)Poems by Walter Scott at English Poetry


Archive materials


Walter Scott Digital Archive
at the
University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...
.
Millgate Union Catalogue of Walter Scott Correspondence

Correspondence of Sir Walter Scott, with related papers, ca. 1807–1929
*hdl:10079/fa/beinecke.scott, Sir Walter Scott Collection. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
Sir Walter Scott Collection
at the Harry Ransom Center {{DEFAULTSORT:Scott, Walter Walter Scott, Walter Scott 1771 births 1832 deaths 18th-century Scottish poets 19th-century antiquarians 19th-century biographers 19th-century Scottish judges 19th-century Scottish novelists 19th-century Scottish poets Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom British literary editors British medievalists Calvinist and Reformed poets Clan Scott, Walter Elders of the Church of Scotland Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Historians of Scotland Members of the Faculty of Advocates Members of the Royal Company of Archers People educated at Kelso High School, Scotland People educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh Writers from Edinburgh People of the Scottish Enlightenment Presidents of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Principal Clerks of Session and Justiciary Romantic poets Scott family of Abbotsford Scottish anti-communists Scottish biographers Scottish diarists Scottish folklorists Scottish Freemasons Scottish historical novelists Scottish literary critics Scottish sheriffs Scottish people with disabilities Scottish publishers (people) Scottish song collectors Scottish translators Writers of Arthurian literature Writers of historical fiction set in the Middle Ages Writers of historical fiction set in the early modern period 19th-century British civil servants 19th-century Scottish historians Scottish folk-song collectors Weird fiction writers 19th-century diarists